LAHORE: President Dr Arif Alvi has said that students should develop in themselves a persistent habit of learning, obtaining knowledge and information and deriving wisdom from knowledge to make better decisions in the life.
He said students should also gain and develop excellent communication skills to communicate their ideas and thoughts in an effective and persuasive way to their target population which, he said, would provide an impetus to the pace of development of the country and will ensure greater good of the society.
The President expressed these views while addressing the convocation ceremony of Minhaj University, Lahore, on Monday. The ceremony was attended by the faculty, graduating students, and their parents.
Addressing the students, the President urged them to be humble and remain accessible to the common man and dispense their duties with conviction, determination and with humility after entering into practical lives while keeping in view our religious, social, cultural and moral values.
He said due to the advent of social media miscommunication, disinformation and fake news were going to stay and we should develop in ourselves the ability and expertise to be able to sift correct, authentic and credible news and information out of the sea of news and information perpetually generated and injected by both the conventional and social media.
He said the students after entering into their practical lives should not be afraid of embracing and adopting innovations and developments being made in all spheres of life with neck-breaking speed but should adopt them, improve upon them and use technological tools and new knowledge generated perpetually to improve our socioeconomic wellbeing and for the greater good of the society and the country while preserving our religious, social and cultural values. The President said that as Muslims, we have a greater responsibility to shoulder.
“The first message of Quran was to gain knowledge, therefore, we are duty bound to continuously strive to gain and update knowledge as a part of our Islamic heritage”, the President added. This, he said, would provide us the strength and ability to first improve ourselves and later qualify for leadership in different spheres of lives by sheer dint of our merit.
The President advised the students to remain humble and serve their target populations, less fortunate persons and the general public with un-faltered conviction and determination which, he said, was the best possible use of the education, knowledge and expertise gained by them during their education and proper upbringing.
He commended the University’s management for maintaining 50-50 gender balance between male and female students and advised the female students and their parents to make sure that their education, knowledge and expertise, where immense resources of the parents and the state had been spent, were used for greater good of the society and the country besides maintaining and performing their family duties. Earlier, the President awarded doctorate degrees as well as gold medals and certificates among the graduating students.